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Friday, April 26, 2013

Universal Analytics Google - Set Up and Start Tracking More Than Just Websites

Ever thought of tracking more than just website like how many people use the beverage machine to drink coffee and how many of them use it to drink tea? Sounds weird? But, this is made true with the help of Google Universal Analytics which help you get a better understanding of how the users interact with your organization. The best part of this tracking system is "Multi Platform Tracking" that gives you the power to track almost anything you want to. Basically, it allows you to combine your analytics data with other customer data to make more accurate and enhanced business decisions.

The Power of Universal Analytics

Some good examples are shared below that explains how you can explore the power of Universal Analytics to track almost anything you want to.

You want to track the best time in your store when the maximum sale happens.

You want to track how many people leave your store without buying anything.

You want to track the the number of people interested in visiting "Michael's Coffee Shop" and the number of people interested in visiting "Terry's Cake Shop", when both are located in the same food mall. etc.

Google Analytics Older Version Vs New Version - What's the Difference?

The basic difference between old Google Analytics and Universal Analytics is the the former tracks only visitors while the latter also tracks the behavior of the user. It can track data from any web enabled device and helps to gather even the minute details of how any user is behaving and helps the organization to make business decisions accordingly.

How to Set Up Universal Analytics Tracking

Successful tracking will happen in two parts. The first part is all that we are already familiar with when we verify any website and place tracking code in order to start tracking.

Part 1 - Verifying Universal Tracking On Your Website

To set up Universal tracking, follow the steps given below:-

1- Click on the admin tab after logging into your analytics account.

2- Click on New Account the fill in the details to set up your new web property.

Step 3 - Click on "Get Tracking ID" and you will get the tracking code which you need to copy and paste on every page you want to track.

Part 2- Configuring Analytics with Custom Tracking Devices

You may need to use web cams and motion detectors to start tracking user behavior. The basic point would be to find out the GA endpoint, the point which is needed to be tracked down by Google Analytics. Like when any user opens the fridge, a signal is detected and send to GA for tracking or when any user opens a door of the shop, motion cameras detect a signal and passed on the event for GA tracking. The endpoint of your tracking must be specified in order to make GA track almost anything using a web enabled device. Configuring the device would depend on your exact tracking needs so there are no predefined endpoints that can be mentioned here. However, you may have a look at the real world examples below in order to have a better understanding of this concept.